Magic Shift Focus to Game 7
By Dan Savage
May 14, 2009 ORLANDO -- In the stands of Amway Arena, the fans were celebrating.
Confetti fell from the ceiling; complete strangers exchanged hi-fives and smiles as wide as Dwight Howard’s shoulders were spread across the faces of those members in the crowd draped in blue and white.
Their Orlando Magic had just staved off elimination and came through with a thrilling 83-75 Game 6 victory over the defending champion Boston Celtics on Thursday night.
After two full days of listening to the media criticize their team and its ability to close out games, Orlando turned the tables on Boston and pulled away during the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
But while the fans were rejoicing throughout Amway, there was a much different attitude in the Magic’s locker room.
Although the overall atmosphere was positive, it was extremely evident that this was not a team claiming mission accomplished. They were instead all about the next task at hand.
“It’s just back to business,” said swingman Mickael Pietrus, who fired off 11 points in the victory. “Tonight we came out under pressure and played extremely well defensively. I think that’s the way we’ll have to play on Sunday.”
A far cry from a victory speech.
While the buzzer may have sounded on Game 6, Orlando’s mindset never shifted out of survival mode.
The way they see it, they’re still only one game away from going home. And as a team with a lofty goal of winning an NBA championship, falling short is just simply not acceptable.
“This is one-and-done,” Howard said of the Game 7 scenario. “So we’ve just got to go out there and play Magic basketball for 48 minutes. At the end of the game, we should be ahead. I do believe that. I believe in my team and I believe that we’re going to go up there and give it our all.”
The Magic are adamant that the key to a Game 7 triumph is in their Game 6 blueprint. Even though their shots weren’t falling – they made just 36.6 percent of their attempts from the floor – they kept the contest close due to their staunch effort on the defensive end.
“We have to go in there and do the same things we did today,” Magic rookie guard Courtney Lee explained about how to get a win in Boston on Sunday. “We have to rely on our defense instead of our offense and try to get stops down the stretch.”
Certainly another dominant effort from Howard in the interior would help that cause. The All-Star center erupted for 23 points, 22 rebounds and three blocked shots to give Orlando a physical presence on both ends of the court.
He’s fully aware that he’s going to have to bring that type of passion and intensity in order to give Orlando its best chance at winning the deciding game of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference Semifinals series.
“It’s going to be a dogfight,” Howard said about the upcoming contest. “It’s Game 7, its do-or-die both for teams. That’s the biggest thing, they have experience but it’s all about effort and energy.”
While the Magic would like to maintain their intensity from Thursday’s contest, they would like improve their offensive rhythm on Sunday.
“Hopefully we can shoot the ball well come Sunday,” Rashard Lewis explained after his team hit only 23 percent their shots from beyond the arc. “It should tell you that we’re going to have a better chance of winning if we’re knocking down shots as well as Dwight being dominant on the inside.”
If Orlando can finally get that combination to click in Game 7, Magic fans should be able to celebrate on Sunday by booking flights to Cleveland.